


Broken Mirror

by Golbez



Category: Tangled (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Ending, Gen, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-12
Updated: 2014-04-12
Packaged: 2018-01-19 01:52:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1451023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golbez/pseuds/Golbez
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rapunzel once made a deal with her mother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Mirror

**Author's Note:**

> First posted this to Tumblr in 2012. Not sure why I didn't post it here then.

Her new prison has no windows, no lanterns in the sky, and no animals to keep her company. There is only herself and the little things she needs, like a bed and a basin of water, but never what she wants.

She can't want. Not anymore. She promised her mothe...Gothel. She promised Gothel she would not fight, would not try to flee, would not desire freedom. So she can't want anymore, because there is nothing but freedom she wants. And Rapunzel keeps her promises, no matter what. 

So she wiles her time away in her little prison room, painting and writing and sometimes she reads, but it's been the same three books for years so that's not something she does often. She doesn't brush her hair anymore, not after discovering it never needed brushing in the first place. The magic that kept Gothel young kept her hair healthy.

And it's not just her hair. When she looks in the mirror, she sees that nothing has changed. Outwardly she is still the same eighteen year old Rapunzel who had defied Gothel. She gives herself a wry smile each time she catches the eyes of that Rapunzel, feeling much older than she should be inside.

And maybe she is. Maybe it's been a hundred years, but the Rapunzel in the mirror is still the same, carries the same smile. She promised Gothel her forever, and forever is what she would have.

She thinks of Eugene sometimes, but he's a distant memory, a distant echo of what could have been.

He had shown her what it was to live, had given her one day of life, and Rapunzel wonders if _this_ is what it means to be dead.

She shatters the mirror one day, in a fit of rage and self-pity, cutting her fist. The Rapunzel in the mirror screams and pleads, but reflections have no voice. She watches idly afterwards as red streaks the glass, as red stains her sleeve.

The cuts are gone within moments. When she next comes to visit, Gothel takes the mirror away, and never comes back with another.

The Rapunzel in the broken mirror must be happier than her now, she thinks.


End file.
